Still using it myself, pretty happy. I've got it on one of the browsers on my phone now, my laptop, and my desktop. I don't miss Google or other search engines, but I do notice the baked in adverts when I accidentally or am forced to use them (Opera, can you allow custom search engine defaults instead of just the Google/Bing/Wiki etc on phone).
Looks like the service is pretty successful, apparently they are now profitable, and have had additional investment.
Of course, 25000 users is something many people would laugh at, but they're
paid users, and the growth seems to be steady. Seems most of the clientele are somewhat IT focused or can comfortably afford a small subscription for something as used as a search engine. Something I realised is that the 300 searches from the $5 a month plan go
quickly, it's interesting how much you do a search without realising. So I'm happily using the $10/month unlimited.
I quite like having GPT 4.5 access included in the subscription if I want it, the summarizer is quite good. Although I generally don't rely on AI and steer away from using it most of the time, having access to the paid version of GPT
if I want to use it is nice.
Two years ago, on June 1st, 2022, Kagi introduced ( https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-orion-public-beta ) a search engine that challenged the ad-supported version of the web.
blog.kagi.com
I guess I wouldn't be so comfortable adding another subscription/recurrent fee to my life if I hadn't already pruned away something like 80% of the direct debits/rolling contracts etc. I had at one point. But quite happy to pay for the remaining 20% since they improve my quality of life a fair bit.
I'm learning to use the lenses more, and being able to prioritize or ban certain domains from the results is actually incredibly nice, never seeing a pinterest post or whatever again
.
I'm also quite appreciative of how open the development is, with changelogs and credits to users/developers.
Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.
kagi.com
The Wolfram Alpha integration is pretty neat too, but I only really use that at certain times for academic reasons, it's not something I commonly use.
I do wish the Orion Browser was for more than just Mac/IOS though, it seems pretty cool.
Anyway, my thoughts after a few months of usage.
The focus on Open Source where possible is something I strongly support, and hopefully this project continues in the same vein it has so far.
This is not a paid endorsement, review or anything of the kind BTW, this is my private opinion after using the service for a while with my own money.
kagifeedback.org
